Our friends at the Vermont Workers' Center alert us:
By a vote of 8 to 3 the House Healthcare Committee voted the Universal Healthcare Bill (H.202) out. It will go to the House Appropriations Committee today and then will be voted on by the full House next week. And then it will go to the Senate.
That's great news, and brings us yet another step closer to what we need.
Our work is governed by the human-rights principles of universality, equity, accountability, transparencyand participation, which breaks down practically as:
- Every person is entitled to comprehensive, quality healthcare.
- Systemic barriers must not prevent people from accessing necessary healthcare.
- The cost of financing the healthcare system must be shared fairly.
- The healthcare system must be transparent in design, efficient in operation and accountable to the people it serves.
- As a human right, a healthcare system that satisfies these principles is the responsibility of government to ensure.
While our state constitution doesn't explicitly address healthcare as a public concern–in contrast toMichigan's, for example–we did pass Act 128 last year which codified the same: It is the policy of the state of Vermont that health care is a public goodfor all Vermonters and to ensure that all residents have access to quality healthservices at costs that are affordable. We now have to keep at it to make sure that policy is realized via the legislation currently going through the sausage machine.
It's an ugly process, and despite having a Democratic legislature still rife with uncertainty. As Wisconsin has shown, even well-established rights are under attack, so trying to make progress on the right to healthcare is daunting. But all the important battles are being fought at the state level right now, which gives Vermont a real chance to lead the nation on this issue.
That certainly makes a lot of sense, given the difficulties of building national consensus on healthcare. As Justice Brandeis said:
It is one of the happy incidents of the federal system that a single courageous state may, if its citizens choose, serve as a laboratory; and try novel social and economic experiments without risk to the rest of the country.
And that brings me to one strategic goal in the bill: create a public–private single-payer health care system to provide coveragefor all Vermonters after receipt of federal waivers.
Right after the election, Governor-elect Shumlin got Obama's committment for the waivers (ACA, ERISA, Medicare/Medicaid) we need to proceed and our Congressional delegation has also pledged to make sure this happens. Not surprising despite all the naysaying by some folks during the campaign. So we should be able to conduct our grand experiment, but we can't be complacent.
The biggest obstacle now is probably big business. Not just insurance interests, but the likes of IBM et al, who don't want to see their extant coverage plans disrupted and payroll taxes to increase. I happen to know for a fact they are pushing very hard to delay any implementation of a program through more “study”, shunting it off to myriad committees, and addressing the financing component first (I actually think they're right that we're putting the cart before the proverbial horse, but we should develop both at the same time).
I'm a bit concerned about Shummy's fortitude in the face of such well-monied resistance, given his reluctance to even consider raising taxes on the wealthiest Vermonters. It means we have plenty of work to do, so please take action. Let's keep the experiment going.
ntodd
[Update: LOL, of course David Sirota writes today about the down side of such laboratories when mad scientists are at work. I think it reinforces the larger point I made the other day…]